BS: Cats

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: keberoxu
Date: 13 Aug 23 - 05:11 PM

refresh again

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: keberoxu
Date: 08 Aug 23 - 05:44 PM

Good thread to refresh --
we need updates on the Mudcat's members' cats.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Donuel
Date: 08 Aug 23 - 12:19 PM

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL CAT DAY

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Donuel
Date: 15 Jul 23 - 03:32 PM

Ours just smack their lips the way we would pantomime eating.
Body languages differ.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 15 Jul 23 - 03:24 PM

When we still had two cats, they had different ways of indicating hunger or general dischuff. The white-and-black one (some call them "moo cats") would sit and be furious at us; the tabby would just sit and look disappointed.

Nowadays the survivor, the tabby, paws noisily at the glass of the back door if he's actually hungry, or gently lays his paw on the glass if it's just for keeping score.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: keberoxu
Date: 15 Jul 23 - 01:42 PM

"Laser vision" -- I can just see the stare!

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Jul 23 - 01:15 PM

I cat-sit for a friend who travels a lot and has three tiny cats, getting up in years, and one with persistent medical issues that require medications and a shot every three days. A 1/4 can of cat food per cat at a meal and that one with the most medications takes about five minutes to eat everything. The others are quicker, at 2 - 3 minutes per what is essentially 2 tablespoons of food.

She was over for dinner at my house and when I fed the dogs she was astounded at how quickly they wolfed down their mix of dry and veggies; it's usually finished in around 30 seconds.

I had cats for about 40 years, and I didn't get more after the pack of dogs arrived. The last one was a Siamese who would sit beside his empty bowl at mealtime and shoot laser vision at you until you noticed him. We had a little tortoise shell who arrived as a stray and didn't live as long as he did, but I was astonished to realize after a few weeks that she joined him in the silent bowl laser vision routine.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Charmion
Date: 15 Jul 23 - 12:36 PM

Yabbut — Siamese?

Siamese cats are born pale all over and gradually acquire darker “point” colouring on ears, face, paws and tail. IIRC, this phenomenon arises from melanin cells that cluster in the cooler parts of the body.

I have two black cats, each of whom sports a little white patch on the lower belly that looks just like the visible part of a thong swimsuit. They’ve had those markings all their lives.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 15 Jul 23 - 12:06 PM

Thanks, FreddyHeadey; that explains much. Our second pair of cats were pure-black when we got them; over the next few years, they started developing white patches under their chins and on their bibs. Quoth darling daughter: "The paint's wearing off."

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 15 Jul 23 - 11:41 AM

Something I'd never needed to think about before:
Why do you get cats with contrasting white extremeties(paws & tail tips & chests) but never black or other colours?

",,,Humans probably also selected for cats who were calm and comfortable around humans, Lyons* said. Behavioral traits seem unrelated to coat color, but for reasons that scientists don't fully understand, white spots tend to appear when the tamest individuals are selected and bred. It's true of horses, pigs, mice, cows and rats.

These distinctive fur colors and markings emerge while a cat embryo is developing. The cells that give cat fur its color first appear as neural crest cells, which are located along what will become the back, Lyons said.

Then, those cells slowly migrate down and around the body. If those waves of cells move far enough to meet each other on the cat's front side, the embryo will be born a solid-colored kitten, such as an all-black or all-orange cat. Felines develop white feet, faces, chests and bellies when these cells don't quite make it all the way."

*nice bit of nominative determinism ;)
Leslie Lyons, professor emerita and head of the Feline Genetics Laboratory at the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine.

more
www.livescience.com/why-cats-have-white-socks-on-paws.html

______________________
All because somebody on Facebook was looking for a replacement cuddly toy tabby cat which had to have black paws.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 14 Jul 23 - 05:38 AM

FIP is rare in the UK. It normally affects only young cats (under 2) in a severe way.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 14 Jul 23 - 04:31 AM

Molly is still doing well with her Solensia injections. She has taken to sleeping in the cat carrier that we take her to the vets in. She shouts a lot when in the car but I wonder if she enjoys it really. :-) Not much chance of her catching anything from other cats - she hates them!

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Senoufou
Date: 14 Jul 23 - 02:33 AM

Thank you Steve for clarifying. I had a little chat with her over the fence yesterday evening, and she said exactly what you just wrote - that FIP is not exactly 'Covid', but as a veterinary nurse she's already seen some cases here.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Charmion
Date: 13 Jul 23 - 09:25 PM

Watson is glaring at me from the mat at the foot of the stairs. It’s obviously time for bed.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 13 Jul 23 - 04:53 PM

FIP has nothing to do with covid-19. It's caused by a coronavirus but not the one that causes covid. Cats can catch covid but it's generally either mild or symptom-free. It's something to not worry about.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Senoufou
Date: 13 Jul 23 - 03:50 PM

Aaaagh! My neighbour has just told me that Covid has now started killing cats! In Cyprus, around 300,000 have died of it, and it's now here in UK. It's called F.I.P. Good grief! Whatever next?

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: keberoxu
Date: 13 Jul 23 - 01:30 PM

I'm posting this from the computer lounge where I am staying.
Alas, we residents are not permitted to have cats, or any other pet.
Many of us, however, have pets back home, especially cats.

I am looking right at someone's poster project on behalf of everyone
who is missing a pet animal.
It's a collage of photos printed out by people who have photos of their pet.
Several Great Pyrenees dogs, for some reason;
an occasional bird, an occasional horse,
and the great majority are cats, by far.
THe poster is mounted on the wall next to the computers.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Senoufou
Date: 10 Jul 23 - 03:29 AM

My lovely neighbour (a veterinary nurse) has an animal sanctuary and rescues animals of all types, mostly farm ones. A year ago she saved a litter of farm kittens from a cruel farmer who had shot their mother. She bottle-fed them, then re-homed them all, keeping only 'Archie'. He's grown up beautifully, and comes to sit with me on The Bench in my front garden.She also has Delilah and Tiger Lily, who also come to visit me. Since my last cat, Smokey, had to be put to sleep three years ago, it's nice to be able to 'borrow' these cats.
Pippin, another cat who lives in a house behind mine, also comes. I think she's fallen in love with Archie!!

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Charmion
Date: 07 Jul 23 - 11:01 AM

My cats have always lived indoors, in heated and air-conditioned space, and they can't read and probably wouldn't bother with the newspapers if they could. What's more, they are quite unaware of energy costs. Consequently, Watson and Isobel have no notion of climate change.

The different seasons affect them only to the extent that Watson's occasional dashes onto the front porch last about three minutes in summer and more like two seconds in winter.

All year round, they enjoy lounging on the vent gratings -- warm in winter, cool in summer. Can't beat that with a stick.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 07 Jul 23 - 10:44 AM

> How are your cats coping with climate change?

Ours has taken to lounging on the nice cool floor tiles in the kitchen. It's a start.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: keberoxu
Date: 06 Jul 23 - 04:28 PM

How are your cats coping with climate change??

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Donuel
Date: 28 Sep 22 - 07:44 AM

My neighbors can be seen walking their dog with their cat bounding about freely behind the dog and an exotic leopard-like kitten strutting behind the first cat.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Donuel
Date: 28 Sep 22 - 07:30 AM

House trained and cuddly these are compared to cats by owners but they don't eat birds! https://www.mypetalpaca.com/

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Donuel
Date: 27 Sep 22 - 06:44 AM

stray cat strut

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: keberoxu
Date: 24 Sep 22 - 07:44 AM

Nice take on "O Sole Mio" there.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 23 Sep 22 - 09:34 AM

> Keep those cats and kittens coming.

Don't snip them, then :-) . Our current feline tenant was the result of a serial slut (her staff's description, not ours) high-tailing it over to the graveyard every night, for fun and entertainment with the local troupe of entire toms. Methinks she never was qualified to sing "A Solo Miaou".

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: keberoxu
Date: 22 Sep 22 - 01:34 PM

Keep those cats and kittens coming.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 18 Sep 22 - 04:33 PM

I must admit I was surprised in another thread by Donuel commenting:

"Furniture moving was the bulk of the lifting but I'm not sore today. The room looks bigger today and the cats seem to love it."

We never had a cat that wasn't thrown by reorganising furniture.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Charmion
Date: 18 Sep 22 - 03:22 PM

I solved the parlour carpet problem by moving the litter box upstairs to the coat closet, so Watson doesn’t have so far to go when the urge strikes, and replacing the pissed-on green Bokhara with a less beautiful but still quite acceptable old red Persian that has never been pissed on, at least not lately, or by Watson.

The freshly cleaned green Bokhara is rolled up and stowed in the basement. I don’t know yet when or where it will be deployed again, but it’s too nice to let slip through my fingers.

As for the windows, the new furniture arrangement actually provides better sight-lines. But cats hate change, and that’s that.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Donuel
Date: 18 Sep 22 - 10:10 AM

My cat Rocky would cause deer in the front yard to freeze in place.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: keberoxu
Date: 17 Sep 22 - 12:30 PM

It's too bad, Charmion, about Watson and that one carpet; your reports of sending the carpet to be cleaned have become drearily regular and routine. I don't know what can be done when an aging cat claims an object in that fashion, you can't train him out of it in any way, can you?

Regarding the parlo[u]r, is it about the windows? The cats want the furniture a certain way so that they can see out the windows?

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Charmion
Date: 17 Sep 22 - 09:15 AM

I rearranged the parlour furniture and the cats don’t approve. I have evidently disturbed an important observation post.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 17 Sep 22 - 06:41 AM

Our little calico, Molly, has a new lease of life. She is getting on in years (15 I think) and has always suffered from problems with her back legs but after a visit to the vets about 3 months back she in on regular Solensia injection which has put the spring back in her step. Must see if I can get it :-D

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 17 Sep 22 - 05:41 AM

I have a large bag of puppy food in my outhouse (are you listening, Backwoodsman?) I'm using it to feed a rather skinny fox that's been turning up in our garden for weeks, eating bird food on the ground. My cat does not like the fox although the fox would really prefer just to ignore the cat. Polly the cat does that wiggly bum swishy tail stalking thing when she sees the fox and has been known to chase it off. I try to feed the fox when the cat's indoors having just had her tea. So far, so good.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Senoufou
Date: 17 Sep 22 - 01:50 AM

Well Pippin (cat owned by neighbours behind my bungalow) is ready at the conservatory door when I get up at 6am. She stands up on her hind legs and does a sort of mambo with her front paws on the window pane.
I always give her a plate of Whiskas cat food, as she seems very hungry, and her owners aren't the best of pet-owners. They have a poor dog that spends its entire life shut in a cage in their garden, barking and howling. I might contact the RSPCA, but they're notoriously non-responsive round here.
And Archie, the rescued kitten, is now fully grown and flourishing. He comes belting through the hedge to see me on The Bench, and rolls around on his back making funny little moaning noises. His housemates, Delilah and Tiger Lily, have accepted him, and the delightful shepherdess/vet nurse look after them all beautifully.
Both Pippin ans Archie like to sunbathe in my greenhouse, so I leave the door open for them. It's boiling hot in there at times, but of course, cats love heat!

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Donuel
Date: 16 Sep 22 - 03:41 PM

I got rid of old rugs and put down dark green carpet and the cats are ecstatic about it. They also got an additional window perch. Any open window season is a good season.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: keberoxu
Date: 16 Sep 22 - 03:14 PM

How are the Mudcatters's cats responding
to the change of the seasons,
whichever hemisphere they dwell in?

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: keberoxu
Date: 25 Jul 22 - 08:27 AM

One of our Mudcatter members
recently said goodbye to their cat.
Commiserations from cat-lovers here at the Mudcat.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: rich-joy
Date: 30 Jan 22 - 03:40 AM

Sorry, I forgot to Bl'ickisize :) R-J

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: rich-joy
Date: 30 Jan 22 - 03:37 AM

After I waxed lyrical on this thread about the film KEDI : The Cats of Istanbul on 08April2020 and JackCampin and Charmion concurred!(conpurred?), I came across SARPER DUMAN's lovely YT channel.

He is a gentle pianist from Istanbul who took in some of Istanbul's myriad cats (I think he shared his abode with 19 at one time, one blind) and cares for and repairs them! He has many vidclips of playing his compositions either surrounded by his cats, or, playing around - and with - them at the keyboard!


This is my fave tabby cat : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1A3hOmH-hI0

Here are his videos : https://www.youtube.com/c/MrSarperd/videos
(includes one of "his story")

Highly recommended.
Cheers, R-J

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: keberoxu
Date: 29 Jan 22 - 09:56 PM

cats, cats, glorious cats . . .

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: keberoxu
Date: 21 Dec 21 - 09:00 PM

How goes it with our cat-owned Mudcatters
hunkering down for the (Northern Hemisphere) winter?

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Charmion
Date: 05 Sep 21 - 10:37 AM

Watson still occasionally hangs around the sink and nudges the spout with suggestive chirps when I’m making coffee, but quickly gives up and resorts to the fountain. Isobel doesn’t bother with the sink at all any more.

They both like to visit the shower while I am drying myself to lap up the water around the drain. Fortunately, I do not indulge in complicated body-wash products.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: keberoxu
Date: 04 Sep 21 - 10:35 PM

By the way, Charmion,
have you managed to wean the cats off of the kitchen tap altogether
with the implementation of the water fountain for cats?

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 27 Jun 21 - 07:25 PM

Well I was "shorty-pants" at school, Dave. Bastard northerners... All our cats have been named after puddings, though the connection is often a private family joke... We've had a Pud, a Sago, a Fig, a Mousse, a Toots (tootie-fruitie) a Monty (?) and now a Polly (derived from roly-poly a la jam, a reference to the rather rotund shape she was when we first acquired her).

Mrs Steve's gone to bed so I'll ask her about "Monty" tomorrow!

In 2002 I got a photo of Toots and me in the Guardian weekend mag... Now there was a cat...

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 27 Jun 21 - 02:22 PM

I have only just noticed the choice of name, Steve. Not only was I Polly at school, but our remaining cat is Molly. Were we separated at birth? :-D

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Jos
Date: 27 Jun 21 - 09:43 AM

Often, rescue cats have gone hungry in the past, so they eat whenever they get the chance.
When I had cats they had dry cat food (and water, of course) available all day long from the time they were weened, and just ate when they felt like it. They weren't overweight and they weren't food obsessed.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 27 Jun 21 - 08:48 AM

She was overweight when we got her and has been on a strict regime ever since. We're getting there, though I'm sure she feels somewhat badly done to. :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Charmion
Date: 27 Jun 21 - 08:39 AM

Newsflash, Steve: All cats are food-obsessed. It’s part of that predator thing.

When they lose interest in food, there’s something amiss. So Polly is firing on all cylinders.

Subject: RE: BS: Cats
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 26 Jun 21 - 06:48 PM

Polly the cat has settled well and greets us very vocally several times a day. She's food-obsessed. She's happy outdoors and she loves the cat-cave we've installed outside our front door. Thankfully, she doesn't have wanderlust. We do live in a house with a huge garden and no neighbours, a long way from roads, ideal cat territory...